Six-figure gambling in rented swanky condo

“There are gambling sessions in a posh residential-commercial condo, go there quick.”

A telephone call was made to Songpa police station at around 6 p.m. last Monday. The Songpa violent crimes unit got busy. Six teams were deployed to raid the 15th floor of a residential-commercial high-rise condo in the affluent Songpa district in Seoul.

A tip had been given to the Songpa police two weeks ago that a gambling group owner identified as Hong was touring condos in the wealthy Gangnam area in Seoul and holding illegal gambling sessions there. Since then, internal investigations had been conducted. At the site of the raid, there was a baccarat gambling session with some 912 U.S. dollars at stake per session. Some 18 people including housewives gambled with a total of 364,860 dollars for five hours.

Hong’s group had rented this condo since Sept. 4 to open the gambling place. They collected gamblers at the Gangwon Land casino. When they got contacted from people expressing the desire to gamble, they masqueraded as residents, going to pick them up at a subway station or at the condo complex entrance.

The apartment was rented for 7,200 dollars to 9,121 dollars a month. The gambling group got the money remitted into their accounts prior to the sessions, then allocated chips at the gambling place and pocketed a 5 percent fee.

The Songpa police station arrested Hong and dealer Jeong for opening an illegal gaming site and booked 18 people without detention for gambling, including a 55-year-old woman identified as Jang.